Quite close to me
by machete227
Summary: After recieving help from an unexpected character oc , Ozai manages to break out of prison.What will happen when a fresh start means involment with a druglord and a ruthless gang of from a bad side of town? Rated for gore,drug references,sex,and language
1. Prologue: Close call

_Prologue_

_Okay, this really IS about Ozai, but this sets up the story._

_(P.S You might not get this if you haven't read the first chapter of my story 'Out of the ash')_

"Riteki?" Bato calls from behind me. Damn. I thought he was asleep. I dig my nails into my palms.

"Yes, Bato?" I'd finally learned how to say his name right.

"Where are you going?" He asks. I sigh into the Fire Nation's hot summer air. We moved there after I told Bato his homeland's weather reminded me of the prison. Might as well tell him what I'm up to. I'm a terrible liar.

"I need to go to the capitol prison." I say, turning around to face him from my post beneath the doorframe. "Here's the kicker: It's for Ozai. There's something I need to thank him for." I wait for him to start yelling, but he just walks over to me and closes the space between us. Face emotionless.

"What could you possibly have to thank him for?" He looks down at me. I don't look back up at him. For some reason my neck hurts too much to look up.

"You may come with me if you question my motives." I say this to his chest because I still refuse to look up. He's going to. I know he will. He worries.

"Alright, but... It can't wait until tomorrow? It's getting late."

**TIME SKIIIIIPPP! **

The day is already hot. It must be hell in the prison at high noon. I dare to touch the metal door, Bato following not far behind. I wipe the sweat off my fore head, and make way towards where Ozai's cell is supposed to be. The guards give us weird looks, but say nothing.

"Riteki..." Bato says from some where behind me. I don't turn around.

"Aye?"

"Be careful." I will. It's not like I need to be at this point in time. He's behind bars. Without bending. I'll be fine. I open the door and close it before Bato has a chance to try to follow me. I hear the swishing of clothes on stone as the occupant turns to face his visitor.

"Who are you?" Comes the dark throaty voice that is all too familiar. Right cell. Perfect.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't recognize me." I try to mimic the high pitched voice that I had before I was freed.

"Oh, I remember you," Even through the darkness, though I cannot see yet, I feel him smirk. "You're that girl Quinne used as a whore. You should think about going into such a field, because Tuin Li said that-"

"Shut up." I say equally as dark as the first word he spoke was. "I have something to tell you."

He scoots up to the bars. "Go on."

"For your entire reign my people have suffered. Was it not our children that fought for food, fresh water, survival? Of course it was. Your rash decisions have most definitely taught us one thing, never take anything for granted, for it can be taken away at any moment. You know this well. And for such lessons I thank you.

"We really aren't that different in more ways than one. You and I. Your nation, my clan. We laugh, when we are happy. We cry. When we are sad. Now pay attention to this one, heed my words. Because this- this one really get me and this one applies to you. Sometimes we act. Out of revenge." I reach down and pull the knife Bato gave me for what we were pretty sure was my birthday out of my pocket. I had sharpened it down to a tenth of a hair. It could cut through any thing. I throw it, and it hits it's mark. I leave.

"How'd it go?" Bato asks, following me down the hallway.

"I think he got the point."


	2. Breakout

_Shit, that was close. _I think. The knife, it pierced the metal bar in front of my face. Not even a half a millimeter away from slicing open the skin between my eyes. That girl. She left her knife here. I reach out to the other side of the bars and grab it. There is a note attached. I take it off, and put the knife down, standing up next to the window in order to get enough light to read. It is covered in neat, slanted hand writing that says:

_7644 Selous, Tanzai, Terragonda. Come an hour past midnight. Ask for Soairse. _

_Pronounced Seer-shuh. She'll give you a fresh start._

I crush the note in my hands, wishing I could burn it to a tiny little crisp. How in hell am I supposed to get there? I'm in a damned prison. Throw the note across the room and sit back down, leaning against the wall. I pick up the knife and run my fingers across the blade. Without putting any pressure, it slices open the skin on my fingers as they run over with blood.

"Fuck!" I curse and put the knife down, lick the blood off my fingers and spit it out. It's a trick I taught my self after I realized there is nothing in this prison clean enough to safely clean a wound. _If that knife can cut through a steel bar, it can do it again. _I think. I take time for my fingers to recover and get the knife again. I take a stance. Starting with the damaged bar, I swing at it and it cuts clean through. I find the one next to it. Another clean cut. I kick the bars out as best as I can and climb through, now that I could fit. I had lost some weight. (You'd lose weight, too, if you saw what they called food) I retrieve the note and run out the door. Down the hall. The first guard comes after me. I swing the knife at his stomach. Across. Then up in a diagonal motion. Wails of pain are gurgled by blood in the mouth. Guts spill on the floor. I am careful not to slip on them. His comrade is not as conscientious. He slips on his partner's innards. I step on his head. Skull crushed. I run down the hall way longer swinging at every guard I see. I am covered in blood, and I do not care. I will get out of this prison. I _will_ get out of this hell.

**Character transition! **

I look down at Fire Lord Zuko from the ceiling I am hanging from. Irritated. If my plan worked, the sentries should have arrived by now. Two figures come in through the curtain that hangs in the throne room entrance. From where I am they seem to glide.

"Fire Lord Zuko! Fire Lord Zuko!" They say, "There is something urgent you must know." I smirk. This is it.

"And that would be?" Zuko sounds bored and tired. This will wake him up. No worries.

"Something has happened at the capitol prison. 5 are dead. 17 injured; ten of which are in critical condition. Your father's cell is vacant and damaged."

"What?" Ozai has received my message. Perfect.

**Character transition **

I have been running for almost an hour. I stop to rest at a corner. Taking time to wipe the blood off my skin, people stare. Not the way they did when I was Fire Lord, the way they did when I was on trial. I don't care. Selous is a neighbor hood in the lower ring of the palace city full of death, crime, poverty, sickness, and self destruction. A bloodied man is a typical sight. The corner is littered with shady figures drinking from bottles of cactus juice talking to scantily dressed, attractive women. I can only _guess_ the underlying intentions. I smirk in spite of my situation. I remember over half my harem were of Selous. Willing members, too. Most women of Selous grow o be criminals or whores. I get back up and leave.

The house has smoke coming from it. Some one is yelling at someone else. A man is shoved out the door and the door slammed behind him. He is most obviously drunk to the point of alcohol poisoning.

"Hey, you," I grab his shoulder and turn him around so he faces me. "Is this 7644 Selous?"

He nods and groans, and I step away before me can vomit on me. He pukes on the sidewalk and passes out in it. I search his clothes for monies or weapons. All he has is a machete and 17 copper coins. I take it and walk inside. The house, as I said before, has smoke in it. But it does not smell like fags, it smells different. Like something way too sweet. So sweet it's sickening. A man spots me and walks my way. He walks with a swagger, but he is stone cold sober.

"You're looking for Soairse." He says. I nod. "Follow." He says. And I do.

The room he leads me to is dark, lit by a single candle, but it does not smell like the rest of the house. And for that, I am thankful. Her figure is dark I can barely see anything but her eyes. They are a bright green color.

"You." The voice is dark, raspy, but definitely female.

"I hear around you give fresh starts to those who need 'em." I say. The man who led me here is gone. Door closed. No escape. I do not move.

"And I hear you tried to destroy the world and my people." She says. She puts her hand together and presses her fingers next to her lips in thought. "Welcome to my gang. But those fresh starts don't come free, y'know?"

I cross the room and sit at a chair on the other side of the desk before her. "Name your price."

"Get some rest. I will tell you the story tomorrow. And help you change your appearance." She gets up and leads me out of the room. Down the hallway, to another. The room isn't exactly great, but it has a bed and is better than a prison cell. I get a better look at her in proper light. Skin dark but not yet 'Piandao' tan, hair so light it's almost white. She is short, maybe a little under 5 feet tall, and thin. She looks like you could blow on her and break her in half. But she is attractive. I have never seen anyone who looks like these people do, but I soon learn: I am about to become one of them.

**A/N: Hey guys, just wanted to say check out my profile for an activity that will be SUPER FUN! Yeah, it sounded dorky, but trust me, K? Have fun with it kiddies!**


	3. Welcome to Selous

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in Avatar. Except for Saoirse, she's mine.**

** I may have to bump up the rating a little as this progresses.**

_ Someone's on the other end of the room. _It must be 4 in the morning and someone is in my room and I am barely armed and can't see through the dim light. This must be what it feels like to be helpless. I hate it. I reach slowly over to the machete I lifted off that drunkard. Lifted. Hell, my first day here and I'm already starting to speak like them. The figure shifts and I immediately try to get up. My hand falls on to something that is not bed sheets and it distracts me. I look down and lying next to me are a set of clothes. Orange-ish silver and black. Oui'Frie clan colors.

"Wear them." The figure says. Saoirse. She gets up and starts to walk towards me.

"I'm not wearing your Oui'Frie crap." I say and put the machete down.

"The Fire Nation's looking for you. You go out in public looking like you do now and they'll notice you in a heartbeat." She shoves the clothes in my direction. "Wear them."

I grudgingly take the clothes from her and take them to the bathroom. I wash my hair and put the clothes on. They look weird, but I've only seen myself in red and white. I slowly grab my knife and before I know what I'm doing I shave my whole face. It makes me look ten years younger. I haven't really been clean shaven since my teenage years. But I throw my old clothes out back and walk in to the kitchen. I hear a lot of clanging and Oui'Frie phrases that must be a chain of profanities that Saoirse is letting fall out of her mouth. I decide not to say anything. I find it quite amusing. She finally turns around with two bowls in hand, possessing a look of utmost triumph. Her face falls in to one of absolute shock when she sees me. She lets out a rasping laugh and strides over to me. She starts to touch my face and clothes and I wonder if everyone in Selous is used to such abrasive behavior.

"Who are you?" She jokes, and I don't think it's very funny that she's having me work for her and I still don't know what I'm going to do. I figure I get a new start, then ditch. That's my plan. She suddenly jerks her hand out to me.

"The knife." She says.

"You... want my knife?" I take it slowly out of my pocket, and she snaps at me halfway through.

"It's not yours, it belongs to a friend of mine." She takes the knife from my hand in one swift, fluid motion. She cuts a lemon in half and says, "Go sit in the bathroom. I have some work to do," She takes a hold of a lock of my hair and lifts it up so I can see it. " With this."

She follows closely behind me and I sit. She does exactly what expect her to. She takes a tendril of my hair and saws it off at shoulder length.

"So how old are you?" She speaks up in an effort to strike up something akin to a conversation.

"It's rude to ask how old a person is." I say. She nods understandingly without looking at me and saws off another tendril. A moment of silence passes. But only a moment.

"So how old are you?" A cocky grin finds itself on her face. I grit my teeth.

"Thirty-eight." I say. She stops cutting immediately and looks at me through the mirror, eyebrow cocked.

"Forty." She intensifies her expression.

"One." She looks down, satisfied.

"That, I'll believe." More hair. Off.

"And what about you?" I ask. She yields for a second.

"Huh?"

"How old are you?"

She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly. "I don't know."

"When were you born?" She grabs more hair and pulls down a little, making sure I feel the tug.

"I _don't_ know." She looks down, something about her makes something very small inside me crack alittle, and I curse my self for allowing my self to feel any kind of sympathy. "You have a lot of hair, man." Saoirse breaks me out of my trance.

"I... like it long." She takes the last strand and starts to cut it.

"I can tell." She says. "All done! Well... not quite yet." She takes the lemon she cut in half and starts to rub it on my hair. I duck. I think about trying to swat her hands away, but decide against it because she's the one with the knife now.

"What the fuck?"

"It's going to make you hair lighter. A lot lighter. Almost as light as mine, if not more so." She says. "No one's going to notice you, 'cept for me, 'course." I could try to protest still, but I convince myself I'm smarter than that. "Now go sit outside for about fifteen minutes, okay?"

It's a regular hot day outside in Selous. The fifteen minutes seem endless. I'm not a very patient person. I want to speed up time; this is taking too long. But finally my baking out in the summer heat is over and I go inside. The kitchen looks like something exploded. Soairse sees me and gathers up a tiny wallet from the table.

"We're going to go get some things." She says. Implying, _"Hey Ozai, I fucked up breakfast so we're eating fruit. Your welcome."_

Outside_ again _and it feels like hell. There is a wall of chatter when you walk out Saoirse's front door. People are going in every direction and it looks like utter chaos. But Soairse acts like this is all naturalized. Like it's a practiced, rehearsed, daily routine for her to walk outside and see all these peasants.

We stop at a merchant's cart and she buys something I don't recognize, but she hands it to me and I eat it any way; and I think it's the best thing I've ever tasted. I'm too distracted to realize it. I've noticed a wanted poster hanging on a door to a shop. I take it and read it. It is covered with big, neat, important-looking print.

_WANTED: Former Fire Lord/Phoenix King Ozai. On the case of :_

_ A prison breakout_

_ 5 murders_

_Compensation for the injury of 17_

_ Alleged fraternizing with Oui'Frie Selousian drug gang: Ahaila_

_It is recorded that he broke out of prison the third day of the first week of this month. If you have any information of his whereabouts, please report it to an attendant of the palace._

"Soairse, did you know the law's looking for me?"

She turned around to face me and took one side of the paper, angling it so she could read it. She took it completely out of my hands when she was done, crumpled it and threw it in a nearby fire, probably lit too ward off insects.

"You're in Selous." She said quickly. "There _is _no law."

"You never told me you were in a drug gang." I say, trying to strike up conversation while we walk back.

"In it? I'm the leader." She says cockily.

I don't mean to, but I speak my thoughts out loud. "Great, I'm stuck in the slums of the worst part of the city with an addict drug lord and nothing but a machete and a fruit pit."

She stops dead in her tracks and whirls around, blocking my path. "I'm not a fucking addict, you fucking bastard. I don't do the drugs, I sell them. And now, so do you. Your stuck here with no bending you previously had, nothing but me, 1 set of clothes, and 1 weapon. You _can't _make it on your own with no one's help. All your life, you've been looked after by other people. I've been alone since I was 3. Get used to at least trying to care about something other than yourself." She spins back around and starts to walk back to her house like nothing happened while I'm standing here, staring after her like a complete idiot. Never in my whole life have I been told off by someone so...small or so... uh...her. Someone who should be afraid of me but isn't. Maybe she thinks she could take me, maybe she could care less if she died right now. Whatever, I run after her because I would rather not be stranded in streets I don't know.

"So..." I begin. "When do I start?" Soairse looks up at me and gives me a knowing smile.

"Today."

**A/N: So, I need your opinions. **

** Do you like this so far?**

** Does Ozai seem OOC? **

** Do you hate it?**

** Now, be nice, kiddies. If you absolutely hate it and think I should kill myself, tell me so nicely.**


	4. Souvenir

"I'm telling you, you can't sell here." This dude is starting to piss me off. If he didn't have 3 comrades and they weren't all armed to teeth, maybe I could take him.

"Soairse told me to." I say, wishing I never set my machete across the alley from me.

"_Soairse _has no authority over these parts." He says, fingering a dagger at his hip.

" Then _Soairse _shouldn't have told me to sell here, huh?" It's hard to keep your cool when you're in a ghetto alley, waiting to die. But I manage. I go get the machete... almost. But he man is in my way and he is not moving.

"Move." I say, half snarling.

"Take your shit out of _my _alley, and we'll talk." He says. He's a head shorter then me and probably 70 pounds smaller, so I just push him out of my way to get my weapon. When I turn around, what he pulls out of seemingly nowhere looks something akin to a scimitar with a saw-blade edge on a wooden stick. We swing, but only one hits his mark. And with my luck, it was he. It cuts deep into my shoulder and there is a flash of red that clouds my vision for a moment, then wicked laughter surrounds me every where. He kneels down and holds the weapon in front of me.

"You like my toy?" He said darkly. "I took a souvenir when Admiral Zhao invaded the north pole. Whatever is my dead man's is mine." He leaves.

I have never wanted to kill anyone more than I do him now. Of course, I am in no position to try to kill anyone. No, I am on the ground with a gaping hole carved into my left shoulder. Blood pools around me and I think, this is the first time I've ever seen such large quantities of my own blood. If there was ever enough blood to pool, it was never mine. The dull pain in my shoulder just keeps sharpening and I wish I could go back and just leave when I was told to. But I can't. All I can do is stare at my blood mixed with dirt and wait to bleed to death. And blackness rises up to meet me very quickly.

**TIME SKIIIIIIIP! **

Someone calls my name. "Ozai!" I don't want to get up, my shoulder still hurts.

"Ozai, it's Saoirse. What happened?" She rolls me over on my good shoulder. I can't speak, I'm too out of it. "To Agni, Ozai. What the hell did you get yourself into?" She asked quietly and picked me up and started to drag me to her house. I don't even care to wonder how she can possibly manage to even drag my weight compared to hers.

Some one is in the house named Akiela. Akiela is told to hold me up and not touch my wound, and she/he does. Everything is fuzzy, I can barely see. Saoirse leaves the room for a second and comes back with something white. She and Akiela switch spots and she/he makes me drink water by the multiple gallons. What Saoirse wraps around my shoulder feels spongy and weird, but it dulls the pain a bit. And I slowly start to pass out again.

Next time I wake up, I am in the room Saoirse gave me and there is a candle lit and she is at the end of the bed.

"Saoirse... " I say. She looks up at me from what ever previously had her attention and smiles. Then she looks back into space, like that is where she belongs. Out where no one will bother her or touch her or talk to her, and she is just alone with her thoughts. I wished that often in the past. That I could go somewhere where no one knows me and I don't know anybody. Now here I am, and I don't really like it. It got me a gaping hole in my shoulder.

"Saoirse, I'll be fine. Rest." She does not move. She does not make any movement to acknowledge that I spoke to her. "Saoirse, sleep." I say. All she does is narrow her eyes ever so slightly and stare at my wall like something about it is very, very important. I reach out and touch her shoulder. She jumps and turns around, like a dead man just spoke to her and relaxes a bit after a moment. I scoot over on the bed and grasp her shoulder a little harder. I pull and she gives in. But she is as far on the edge as she can get with her back to me, yet some how, I don't mind. I roll my back to her and we sleep.

**A/N: Okay so I know this is a short chapter compared to the other two, but there wasn't much to say on this topic. **

**Questions?Comments?Concerns?Funny jokes?Requests*? Review and tell me your thoughts!**

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	5. Meet Akeila

"It looks nice, Ozai, It really does..." Soairse trails off, eying the sheath with a deadly precision in those freakishly green eyes of hers.

"Thanks." I take the sheath and slip the machete into it. It looks sharp like that. Tough. I swing it over my shoulder, still a little sore, but the wound's closed up. Soairse tightens the strap and I grunt a little.

"Sorry, you okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, but let me do that from now on, okay?"

A crash at the front door turns both our heads as Akiela casually invites herself in to the house. "Look at you two love-birds." She says and flops on the couch.

"Sure." Soairse says and backs away, trying to ignore Akiela's comment.

"Hey, man," Akiela nods to me. "Nice to see you alive."

"I wish I could say the same to you." I say and Saoirse gives me this look like she's going to kill me and throw me in a ditch.

Akiela just laughs, twirling her dark hair around one finger. Nothing hurts her. "Right. Hey, lots of people feel like that. One more don't hurt. Like your scar." I can't tell whether she is saying this with sarcasm or not, but I look at it anyway.

"Yeah, makes you look tough. Like you've been in a fight or two." Soairse runs her finger softly over that ridge.

"I _have_ been in a fight or two." I say.

Soairse gives me a look. "A gang fight?"

"No, they were all fairly organized."

"Exactly."

"Soairse and Ozai, sittin' in a tree-" Akiela sings.

"E'kholattaa!" We say in unison and Soairse looks at me.

"You're picking up the language fast, huh?"

"I had some time to listen to you talk for a while so... yeah."

**TIME SKIIIIIIIP!**

"Soairse, can I ask you something?" I ask. I'm just trying to ignore the sounds of the girl working over one of her men because he broke the territory rules. She kicks him in the face and he groans. Blood and some teeth fall on the floor. The teeth make a grossclicking thud sound on the packed dirt floor.

"What?" Soairse snaps. Another blow below the belt makes the guy pass out. It makes _me_ hurt.

"What are the rules so _this_," I nudge the limp body with my foot. "doesn't happen to me..."

Soairse sits next to me and wipes some blood off her face with a towel. She starts wiping her hands. "Hell, Ozai, I'd never do that to you." She says softly. "I just really don't like this fucker."

I runs my eyes over her bloodstained features. "You might want to take a bath."

She gives me a weird look, and gets up and yells out the door, "Dahomey!Come get this _vittu kholassi_ out of my sight!" I notice a gash on the back of her left fore arm. _Teeth abrasion? _

"Soairse, you're hurt."

"And?" She walks past me. I watch her go. _That girl..._ I shake my head. I couldn't. She's young enough to be my daughter. Forget it. But I still wish she would have let me clean her wound.

**CHARACTER TRANSITION! :P**

I sink low into the water and rub the dried blood off my body. I think, Ozai has been acting weird since Akiela came over. _Maybe he likes her? _I hope not. I don't have room for that in my gang. We don't marry each other, it's not what we do. We are know throughout Selous for our anti-relationship attitude. We're known for other things, but that is one of them.

He must feel bad that I don't let him do anything for me. And that I don't answer any questions about my past. I like to separate my past. Like that was someone else doing those things. I was just watching from my safe spot. He has no idea how complicated this whole gang really is. Me and Akeila are the only members he ever really talks to.

I sigh. _Was bringing him here a bad idea? _Probably.


End file.
